It’s very cold today in Chicago but I am reminiscing about a lovely outing my husband and I had in early September, 2022 in Huntingdonshire. (Technically, this is Cambridgeshire, but until 1974 it was a separate county called Huntingdonshire.) We explored the town of St Ives and the nearby villages of Houghton, Hemingford Abbots, and Hemingford Grey all on foot. The walk is an easy and flat 5 miles. We really lucked out with the weather.
Bucolic scene along the River Great Ouse
The route is described on this page from The National Trust, but we did it in reverse and started in St Ives. We took the bus from Huntingdon to St Ives then walked to Houghton through The Thicket. In Houghton we admired many thatched cottages and Houghton Mill (still in operation) then trekked across the meadow to the Hemingfords. We ate lunch at the Axe and Compass pub followed by a brief stop at The Manor (“one of the oldest continuously inhabited houses in Britain”). The Manor house was closed to tours but we were able to see the garden. Then we headed back to St Ives via a field of grazing sheep.
Back in St Ives we visited The Norris Museum and had cream tea at Tom’s Cakes. St Ives has a great atmosphere. We saw some very promising pubs, but as our bellies were full of scones, we decided to wait until we were back in Huntingdon to get a pint.
If you are visiting London as a tourist and want to get out into the countryside for a day or two I highly recommend this region. St Ives does not have a train station but you can get there by bus from Huntingdon or Cambridge.
I may end up back here at some point as it’s close to one of my ancestral villages that I haven’t had a chance to visit yet: Fenstanton.